Okay, going to post this again. Hopefully the conversation isn't over (which often seems too be my luck for when I chime in).
As others have said on here. from all the pics and videos I have seen this spring the palms at English Bay are healthy as normal. If a palm is able to bear fruit it is healthy. In fact the English Bay palms are more what Windmill Palms look like in their natural state, simply because they have not been pruned properly.
Where I am working today has some Windmill Palms that are pruned properly, so I will take a couple pictures of them and post them later today.
As for those Windmill Palms in Brentwood, they have suffered a triple hit.
First is the heat dome, the Brentwood area was considerably hotter than the downtown peninsula, likely hitting around 41 or 42 degrees (like the rest of the suburbs and valley). That did a number on them, since Windmill Palms are from moist mid altitude mountain areas that never experience temps that high.
Second was the cold snap, temps hit around -16, which isn't an immediate death sentence if brief enough, but its not good, and is very dangerous for the reproductive organs especially.
Now, either of these alone is bad, but together in the span of a year or two, is really bad.
Then there is the nail in the coffin, drought. Windmill Palms need moisture. The location of these palms is particularly bad, they are under the guideway! This means without adequate watering, they will suffer greatly. In fact, you can even see that the closer you get to the station house (with a greater rain shadow) the more unhealthy the palms become.
And here are the Windmill Palms at my workplace today. This is how they are propoerly pruned every spring:
image_16904449 by
Ian, on Flickr
image_16884993 by
Ian, on Flickr
This goes a long way in removing any confusion for what some may think is a "dead" look with last season's (and seasons' prior) dead fronds hanging on.
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